Bareilly Police Bust Inter-State Hawala Network Exposed by Rs 1.47 Crore GST Notice
The Bareilly Police have cracked down on a big hawala racket that was running across states. The network was exposed due to an Rs 1.47 crore GST evasion notice in Uttarakhand. This uncovered illegal money laundering worth Rs 23.65 crore through fake companies.
Two suspects have been arrested by the police; however, the key person involved in this hawala network, Neetu, from Shahjahanpur, is currently on the run.
The case started when a daily Zari worker, Shabbu, from Kesar Pur Village, near the Bhuta police station, got a shocking GST notice of Rs 1.47 crore from the Haldwani GST Department over suspicious transactions. Shabbu was shocked to receive this huge GST notice, which also froze his bank account. He claimed that he did not know anything about the business operating under his name and that he was just a daily wage labourer. He reached out to Bhuta Police, which uncovered the hawala network.
During the investigation, the police found that in 2022, Shabbu was tricked by a local named Shahid, who made fake promises of growing his small business. Shahid got Shabbu’s documents, using which he opened two bank accounts that were referred to as Mule Accounts by Police. One was a current account at HDFC Bank.
The accused allegedly kept the passbooks, cheque books and debit cards of these bank accounts. From 2022 to 2025, the HDFC bank account had carried out transactions worth Rs 23.65 crores. Investigators say Amit Gupta from the Kankartola area under the Baradari police station ran that account. Amit Gupta reportedly accepted that he worked on Neetu’s directions to convert illegal money into legal funds. The Bhuta Police have arrested Shahid and Amit Gupta and sent them for judicial custody.
The investigation revealed that Amit Gupta had set up a hawala network pretending it was a Mentha oil trading. To make it look real, he set up about 12 fake companies under his and his relatives’ names. The police are investigating all 12 firms now.
The investigation discovered fake invoices related to Mentha Trade. One showed 12 drums of mentha oil for Rs 31 lakh. Another had 19 drums worth Rs 47 lakh. A third bill came to Rs 65 lakh, but it did not even mention the quantity of mentha oil. The paperwork faked the trading of mentha oil even though there was no actual supply at any of the registered firms.
The police have said that the hawala network had connections outside the local areas. Strong connections were found in Uttarakhand and Bareilly, along with the cross-border links across Nepal. To understand the full network, officials are checking the phone records of the arrested persons to reveal contacts, money movement, and other people involved in the operation.
